$100 Invested In Ripple Would Have Made You $35K, What About The Rest?

Call it a bubble if you like, but can you really afford to stay out of cryptocurrencies? 'Cryptomania’ was unquestionably the major talking point of 2017.

Mainstream channels stayed away from it early in the year, while the flying pace of the cryptocurrency gauged the attention of grandmothers. By mid-2017, however, Bitcoin exploded above $3000 for the first time and the mainstream channels began to dedicate serious airtime. This fuelled a plethora of “record price” headlines for not only Bitcoin, but also for the other major alternative coins.

(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

In 2018, Bitcoin — the king of cryptocurrencies — has had a much weaker start, starting the year on a lower note for the first time since 2015. In late December 2017, many players in the crypto market began to think the cryptocurrency bubble was about to burst when it dropped below $11K. However, bargain hunters took the full leverage of this opportunity which helped break the ice for Bitcoin, pushing it above $14K in a flash.

Nonetheless, BTC still finished the year with a gain of 1,369%. Looking at this number makes you think that there is no doubt that it is a bubble, because gains like these are unprecedented.

The question is: can you make money while still thinking there is a bubble? Giving a straight answer; if you can afford to lose an amount which won’t make any meaningful difference to your life, then by all means, dabble. An average American aged between 20-64 earns approximately $27-50K a year, So, in a scheme of things, 100 dollars invested in cryptocurrency has a minuscule probability to impact anyone dramatically.

The rewards are undoubtedly there. From the below chart it is clear, $100 invested in Ripple last January would by now have yielded $35,259 (including your initial investment of $100): an astonishing gain of 35,159%.

Even the lowest return is not to be sniffed at: $100 invested in MaidSafeCoin would also have returned nearly $948 over the year. If an investor had placed $100 in each of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, the total yearly profit would have been $64,707 (on an initial investment of $1K).

Performance of $100 invested across top concurrencies

@NaeemAslam23, ThinkMarkets,

Ripple outperformed any other cryptocurrency in 2017

@NaeemAslam23, ThinkMarkets

These sort of returns and risk-to-reward ratio are unheard of and despite many playing the drums of “it is a bubble,” it may not the worst idea in the world. The numbers speak for themselves

Looking ahead, alt-coins could sharply plunge in value if Bitcoin successfully installs an upgrade to its core software , and the chances of this are very high.

I believe this is where the key focus is for hedge funds, with the first one out the gate usually winning the game. Smart money would be more comfortable with Bitcoin purely because of its worldwide adoption — but I am also convinced that the race to upgrade would drive a rally in alt-coins as well. My target for Bitcoin is $40-50K by the end of 2018, provided the momentum continues at this pace .